The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-22
DIR. TALMAGE
Discourses on the Gospel of
Health
An THE BRooKLYN TABERNACLE

ing out the hymn, beginning:
should coming days be cold and dark,
| We need not cease our singing;
| That perfect rest nought can inolest,
| Where golden harps ringing"
| lie then explained passage in the gospe
| OF st. Matthew, concerning the inferior kin(
OF salt that was cast out to make walks of, t.
be trodden under foot of men. The subjec
OF DIR. Talmage' discourse was "The gospe
| OF Health" and his text from Proverbs vii
%. "1ill dart strike through his liver
| He said:
There is a fashion in sermonics. A compar
atvely small part of the Bible is called on fo
| texts Most OF the passages Of Scripture
| when announced at the opening of sermons
| Immediately divide themselves into old dis
cussions that We have heard from boyhood
| and the effect on us is soporifc. The auditor
guesses at the start just what the preacher will
| say. There are very important chap
| tors and verses that have never been
| preached from Much of my life time am
devoting to unlocking these gold chests and
blasting open these quarries. We talk about
the heart, and preach about the heart, and sing
about the heart, but if you refer to the physical
organ that We call the heart, it has not half so
much to do with spiritual health or disease,
moral eXaltation or spiritual depression, as
the organ to the consideration OF which Solo
mon calls us in the text, when he describes sin
I RiFSsrSS''ins D'i " a''' strike through his
Solomon's anatomical and physiological dis
coycrics were so very great that he was nearly
three thousand years ahead Of the scientists of
ms day. Ee, more than one thousand years
before Christ, seemed to know about the circu-
lation Of the blood, which Harvey discovered
sixteen hundred and nineteen years after
Christ, for when Solomon in Ecclesiastes
describing the human body, speaks
OF the pitcher at the fountain, he evidently
means the three canals leading from the heart
that receive the blood like pitchers. When
he speaks III ECclesiastes of the silver cord Of
life, he evidently means tho spinal marrow,
about which, in our day, Drs. Mayo and Car
penter and Dalton and Flint and Brown
Sequard have experimental And Solomon
recorded in the Bible, thousands of years be-
fore scientists discovered il, that in his time
the spinal cord relaxed in old age, producing
the tiemors Of hand and head. cor the silver
cord be loosed."
In the text he revealed the fact that he had
studied that largest gland Of tho human sys-
tem-the livernot by the electric light OF the
modern dissecting but by the dim light
OF a comparatively dark age, and yet had seen
its important function in the Godobuilt castle
Of the human body its selecting and secreting
power, its curious cells, its elongated, branch
ing tubes, divine workmanship in central
and right and loft lobe, and the hepatic artery
through which God conducts the crimson
udeS. Oh, this vital organ is like
tho eye OF God in that it never
sleeps Solomon knew Of it, and had
noticed either in Yiysection or post-mortem
what awful attacks sin and dissipation make
upon 1t, until with the fiat Of Almighty God it
bids the body and soul separate, and the one
1t commands to the grave, and the other It
sends to Judgment. A javelin of retribution,
not glancing off or making slight wound, but
piercing it from side to side, eth the dart
strike through the liver Galen and Hippo
crates ascribe to the liver the most of the
worlds moral depression, and the word melau-
chOly means black bile
preach to you this morning the gospel
OF health. In taking diagnosis OF the
diseases of the soul, you must also
take tho diagnosis Of the dis.
whole book Of the New Testament was written
| by physician Luke was doctor, and he
dlscourses much of physical effects, and he
tells OF the good Samaritan'S medication of the
wounds, by pouring in oil and wine, and recog-
nizes hunger rs n hiudrance TO hearing the
gospel, SO that the five thousand were fed and
records tho sparse diet of tho prodigal away
from home and the extinguished eyesight Of
the heggar by the Wayside, and lets us know
of the hcmoUhage of the wounds of the dying
Christ and the miraculous post NOR
tenn resusCtation And any estimate
of the spiritual condition that does not
include also au estimate of the physical condi-
ton is incomplote. When the doorkoeper of
congress fell dead from excessive Joy because
Burgoyne had surrendered at Saratoga, and
Philip the Fifth of Spain dropped dead at the
news of his couutry's defeat in battle, and
Cardinal Wolsey expired as a result of Horny
the Eighth's 8nQthema, il was demonstrated
that the body and soul are Siameso twins, and
when you thrill the one with iOy or sorrow YOU
thrill the other We might as wen recognize
the tremendous fact that there are two mighty
fortressos in the human body, the heart and
the liver; tho heart, the fortress Of all the
graceS, the liver, the fortress Of all the fures.
You NAV have the head dllcd with all intel
lcctualucs, and the ear with all musical APP
probation and the mouth with all eloquouce,
and the hand with all industries. and the heart
with an Eenerostios, and yet "a dart strike
through the liver
First let Christian people avoid tho mistake
that they are all wrong with God because they
suffer from depression OF spirits. Many IL con
secratcd man has found his spiritual sky DO
loggcd and his hope of heaven blotted out
and himself plunged chiu-dcep in the Slough
of pespond, and has said: "Nty heart is not
right with God, and | think / must have made
n mistake, and instead of being a child of
Hight | am n child OF darkness No ono can
feel MS gloomy as | feel and be q Christian. 81
And he has gone to his minister for consola-
ton, and he has collected Flavel's books, and
Cecils books and Bakers books. and read
and read and read and PRAYED and prnyed
and prayed, and wept and went and went. and
groanod aud groauc0 and groaned My brother.
your trouble lis not with the heart, il is n ras-
trte disorder or a rebellion of the iyor. You